


Cooking With You

by lutzaussi



Series: One Summer's Day/Always With Me [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: (not explicit though), Child Neglect, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Food, Food as an Expression of Love, M/M, Sasuke is Desperately Gay, oblivious idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-06 18:12:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11041563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: Naruto hates Sasuke. Like, a lot.Funny how that changes. Funny how well they fit together, after a while.





	Cooking With You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Whichie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whichie/gifts).



Naruto does not like Sasuke. Mostly it’s for his (undeserved and frankly inexplicable) popularity, but a small part of hates the other boy because Sasuke is like him. An orphan. Alone. And yet him being an orphan does not mean he has the same experiences and welcome as Naruto, and Naruto hates that most of all. Whereas he is ostracized, sneered at and hurried past in the streets, Uchiha Sasuke is received with pity and acceptance.

Naruto tries to figure out why, multiple times over the course of a few weeks. He asks the other kids on the playground. He asks his teacher before she retires (she had looked at him, her lips twisted with something like pity, said, "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I don't know.") and is unsure enough of Iruka-sensei that he doesn’t ask the sometimes-scary Chuunin. As a last ditch effort, he finally goes to ask the Hokage himself but loses his nerve from all of the big Jounin glaring at him as he darts through the halls of the Hokage Tower. 

He leaves, goes home to find no food in the fridge, and barely stops himself from crying. Sometimes there are fruits and vegetables that appear on his kitchen table, as if at least one person thinks he is okay, he is worth time and effort. Maybe they are a fairy, or something. Maybe they don’t actually exist. The lack of food, though. Naruto scrounges and finds the change he hasn’t deposited in his frog (even if nobody else thinks about his future, he has  _ plans _ ), and figures that maybe Ayame will have a little pity on him.

He doesn’t get to Ayame. Hell, he doesn’t even make it to Ichiraku before a slurred but sharp voice yells at him. Naruto knows what that means, knows he should probably just cut his losses and run, but it’s instinct to turn and stare, wide-eyed, at the man advancing on him. Hot panic mingles with ice cold terror, and his legs feel as if they departed from his body. He  _ can’t. Move _ . Even when the man advances, instead of running Naruto finds himself curling down, in, desperately hoping for something he can’t articulate.

Salvation, maybe. Safety.

" _ What _ are you doing?" the words are harsh, the tone one that Naruto knows well. In fact—he peeks—the speaker he also knows well. One peek at that brown ponytail is enough for him to continue his rock imitation because Iruka tends to only yell when others (Naruto, most likely) are in trouble. Naruto doesn’t know why he’s in trouble, but he figures that, like usual, something is his fault. 

He is...wrong.

Not that he’s complaining but it’s—it’s a shock when he peeks up again. Iruka-sensei is standing over him, glaring down at the man. The man, who Naruto had seen as intimidating and terrifying, is on the ground clutching his nose, blood spurting from between his fingers. Iruka turns away from him, shifts his bag to his right hand so he can pick Naruto up with the left. 

Iruka-sensei's vest is more than a little covered in snot by the time they make it to a large house Naruto has never seen before. He is more than a little wary, because Iruka-sensei has only really ever been stern with him, but free ramen and being introduced to Anko-baa-san makes it pretty worth it. Anko-baa-san doesn’t stay long though, muttering about idiots and dessert as Naruto helps Iruka-sensei get the dishes into the kitchen. She goes running off into the night and Naruto is inexplicably sad, hopes that he will see her again. 

"Eh, Iruka-sensei? Why did you chase that man away?” he asks, hesitating before adding, "No one's ever done that before."

There was something about the expression on Iruka-sensei's face that frightens him. A dark look, but it seems to not be directed at him, per se. The plate slipping out of his suddenly-tight suddenly-slack fingers is scary, though, and Naruto can’t fully contain that flinch when it hits the tile and shatters. Iruka looks  _ remorseful _ , and before he kneels to pick the pieces up he says, in a decisive tone, “I did it because no one deserves to be in that situation. And because a man beating up a boy is wrong.”

Naruto feels the hard knot of stubbornness in his throat that normally prevents him from crying, loosen. “Why is everyone mean to me? I didn’t do a-anything, but they d-don’t stop being m-mean,” he finally stutters out, sniffling.

Iruka-sensei takes the towel Naruto was holding, uses it to sweep up the broken dish before depositing it onto the counter. He seems to be thinking, and Naruto shuffles back until he’s sitting back in one of the chairs.

“What I tell you you can’t tell anyone else,” Iruka says, after a few minutes, coming to kneel in front of Naruto, his face no longer dark or thoughtful. He almost looks... _ sad _ . “I need you to promise me that.”

Naruto dumbly nods, and Iruka exhales, sits down in the chair next to him. “The day you were born, one of the Bijuu destroyed most of Konoha. Did you learn about the Bijuu from Yoshida-sensei?”

Again, a nod. Naruto liked the history lessons, even if they seemed made up sometimes. And giant chakra monsters? Everyone had been paying attention that week, even Shikamaru. He could vaguely remember Yoshida-sensei telling them something along those lines, too, that one of the Bijuu had attacked Konoha but been sealed away by the Fourth Hokage.

“It was the Kyuubi,” Iruka says, voice growing quiet. “Your parents sealed the fox into you.”

“Why?” is followed by “My parents?” is followed by “But the Fourth Hokage…?” is followed by “The  _ Fourth Hokage? _ ” and Iruka winces slightly.

“I can’t really tell you more than that,” Iruka says, gently letting him down. “But sometimes you might feel it—the Kyuubi. It’s not a part of you, but it’s in you.”

Iruka lets him sit and ruminate while he finishes up the dishes, and everything is almost too much as Anko returns with dango and more talk. His parents sealed the Kyuubi in him. The Fourth Hokage was the one who sealed the Kyuubi and stopped its attack. The Fourth Hokage was his  _ dad _ .

Naruto doesn’t even complain when Iruka tells him he’s going to be staying the night. Sleep is what he wants, it doesn’t matter where.

And he finds, over the next couple of weeks, that Iruka-sensei’s house is a safe haven. And not only that, Anko and Iruka like having him there, or are otherwise the best fucking actors Naruto has ever encountered. They make room for him, easily slotting him into their schedules and lives, and after two weeks and a hesitant question from Iruka, he becomes a permanent part of their lives.

He has a  _ family _ .

It is a little weird to go back to school after that. It’s weird to go back to calling Iruka “Iruka-sensei” and pretty quickly Naruto stops constantly cutting class, because not only does he get yelled at when he’s inevitably caught, he also gets more chores at home. And Anko gives him shit even though he’s been told triumphant stories about her skipping class.

So he becomes something of a decent student, even if his grades remain somewhat abysmal. That changes, annoyingly, because of Sasuke.

For all that Sasuke is lauded as a genius by the majority of their class, he can actually be pretty dumb. Naruto is firmly of this opinion before the tripping incident, but the tripping incident just solidifies it in his mind: Sasuke is dumb.

It’s sort of hard to focus on that, though, when Naruto is dragging him home. He’s really quiet and maybe he’s died from blood loss or something but he doesn’t try to take his hand back and, really, maybe Sasuke is actually okay. When he’s not, like,  _ talking _ or anything. When he’s maybe dying of blood loss, yeah. Naruto is prepared to rescind that decision when they make it to where Iruka and Anko are discussing winter vegetables, but Sasuke stays quiet and meek and lets Anko drag him into the house.

Well,  _ that _ is to be expected. He’s still sort of terrified of Anko, too.

But then after his nosebleed has stopped (and he’s hesitantly accepted a clean shirt, not even an orange one) and Iruka chucks him very gently Naruto’s room, which is hosting an extra futon. Naruto sort of wants to dramatically throw himself off a tall building but, also, he knows that Iruka means only the best. And, frankly, that’s been rubbing off, and Naruto also doesn’t like the thought of Sasuke (or any of their peers) traveling across the village alone in the dark.

It’s a little weird, though, to have to share his space with Uchiha Sasuke. Who he doesn’t really  _ hate _ anymore, but he still dislikes him. Being silent and mysterious doesn’t earn anyone points in Naruto’s book.

He tells himself it’s just for one night.

But one night turns into a few every week, and Naruto finds himself sitting with Sasuke at the Academy and pestering the other boy for help on homework and worksheets. Fancy that, Sasuke is pretty smart, given how dumb he is.

Naruto’s grade slowly rise, and by the next school year his circle of friends has widened and Sasuke is a regular part of his life. Technically they’re related, and that’s a doozy to think about. So Naruto doesn’t think about it, instead focuses on passing school and figuring out his own past.

By the time their class is due to take their graduation examination, Naruto has met the Kyuubi twice and, in Anko’s own words because Anko is the one he talks about the fox with, “Charmed the beastie’s non-existent socks off.” His difficulty with using his chakra is, while not gone, lessened. Enough so that when Mizuki has them line up to produce normal Bunshin he’s actually excited when it is his turn, and the pride on Iruka’s face when he and Sasuke leave the Academy is more than worth it.

Naruto officially stops hating and altogether disliking Sasuke (apart from the occasional annoyance at him taking too long in the bathroom or leaving his kunai all over the floor) when they pass Kakashi-sensei’s dumb bell test.

Teamwork has never really been their forte, but when Sasuke drags Naruto over to where Sakura is hiding and whispers, “We’ve got to work together,” they damn well work together. Sakura is a friend, not a close friend, but a friend nonetheless, and though Naruto has gotten over his unrealistic crush on her by that point the way she makes traps is enough to stir some of those feelings back up.

Working together is a tactic that works, and works well. Kakashi doesn’t seem to realize how unpredictable they all are until Sakura is holding the bells. He begrudgingly passes them, tells them to meet him the next day at the same training field, and disappears once he has the bells back.

On their walk back to the house, their very slow walk back, Naruto drops back from walking next to Sakura until he’s level with Sasuke, asks, “How did you know we had to work together?”

Sasuke shrugs, “None of us could’ve done it on our own. We’re more powerful together.”

Yeah, Sasuke is decent.

Decent in weird ways. Living with Sasuke means that Naruto is one of the first to notice the cooking. Well, the very first to notice is Anko, but she doesn’t mention it until it’s been going on for weeks and even Naruto is beginning to get clued in.

It’s a gradual thing, anyway, but eventually Anko corners Naruto and Iruka under the kotatsu after two evenings of tiptoeing around the kitchen to avoid curses and thrown knives, asks them, “Am I hallucinating or is the second son spending basically all of his free time cooking?”

Iruka absent-mindedly flicks her nose with a finger, says, “His name is Sasuke. Yeah, he has.”

“Why’s it matter?” Naruto asks, because frankly Anko has some weird fucking habits and she shouldn’t be judging Sasuke of all people.

Anko stops glaring at Iruka to glare at Naruto, says, “He keeps using up all the flour.”

“Tell him not to then,” Naruto mutters, turns back to the scroll about chakra that Sakura had given to him. But after Anko stomps out and Iruka goes back to writing whatever he is writing, the sounds from the kitchen begin to filter in, and Naruto decides a diversion of sorts is in order.

Sasuke is very intent on both a pot of soup and a pile of vegetables that he is up to his elbows with, intent enough that he takes no notice of Naruto slipping in and sitting at the table.

Naruto doesn’t sweat it, just sits with his chin in one hand, watching.

After the vegetables have all been chopped and added into the soup, Sasuke turns and finally notices Naruto. He looks almost spooked, but Naruto doesn’t say anything, just stares at him. Several moments are spent in a startled deer imitation before Sasuke turns back to the stove and the pots bubbling there, and as he continues working his shoulders relax.

Naruto finds it relaxing, too. Watching Sasuke just...work. Do something that isn’t training or studying. He’s nearly comatose by the time Iruka comes into the kitchen to deal with dinner, which ends up being the soup and some extras that he makes while Sasuke stands at the stove.

Anko returns in time for dinner, and the meal is had in a somewhat exhausted silence.

“Maybe,” Naruto can hear Anko concede to Iruka later when he’s back at his scroll, “it isn’t a bad thing for him to cook. Sure beats us having to do it.”

And Sasuke cooks.

As Anko had said, it isn’t a bad thing. He gets better at it as he goes, probably as a result of him being something of a perfectionist. Naruto, more often than not, finds himself at the table in the kitchen whenever their free time lines up. It’s relaxing and in a way easier for him to focus on his reading while Sasuke works. Kakashi keeps assigning him scrolls to read, anyway, and he always grills Naruto on them before they train, so he might as well do it all properly.

The scrolls are on seals and sometimes on basics that Kakashi thinks have not been hammered into Naruto’s head hard enough. The repetition itself is useful, and Naruto actually feels like he’s learning stuff from their new teacher.

Even if said teacher is a lazy asshole.

He’s decent though, and soon enough they’re taking missions (more often than not monotonous D-Ranks, but there’s no way Naruto is complaining when his dad is glaring at him from the mission desk). Kakashi changes up their training often, claiming they need to learn a variety of skills but probably just not knowing what the hell to teach them. Eventually, after a month or so, he starts training them one-on-one.

It’s a good think, Naruto knows that because he knows Kakashi’s reputation and that the man has a lot to teach each of them, but god is it actually fucking horrible. Sakura complains about the chakra control exercises he has her do, Sasuke about the chakra nature change he’s being forced to work on. Naruto, in his own opinion, has the shortest end of the three-way stick.

He has to meditate. A lot. He gets used to seeing Kurama’s ugly, oversized mug a lot because whenever Naruto meditates he finds himself with the fox. Kakashi says it’s so Naruto can work together with the fox. Naruto is of the opinion that Kakashi just wants time to read his porn in silence while making him look like a fool.

On one such session, after a couple of months as a team, Naruto has to grudgingly admit that maybe there’s something to the meditation. Kurama is way less cranky when Naruto gets to him, and there’s something like a channel open to him even when they finish talking and Naruto resurfaces. He feels warm, somehow. Complete.

Kakashi is not reading when Naruto’s awareness returns, instead staring off toward the entrance to the practice field with a visible crease between his eyes. Naruto, after stretching his neck so it won’t get fucked up by the movement, turns to look in the same direction.

Sakura is bodily dragging Sasuke in their direction by the scruff of the sweater he usually wears at the house, looking rather amused. “Sasuke brought you lunch!” she yells as they advance, and eventually Naruto can make out the bento that Sasuke is indeed holding and trying not to let drop on the ground.

Sasuke doesn’t even say anything, just drops the lunchbox into Naruto’s hands and turns back to Sakura, his ears tomato red for some reason. Sakura nods, and Kakashi and Naruto watch her drag Sasuke off. As Naruto starts in on his bento, Kakashi asks, “Does he always make you food?”

“Yeah, he has for a while,” Naruto says, shoveling the greater part of a rice ball in his mouth. “Why?” he asks around the food, suspicious. Everything about Kakashi makes him suspicious.

“Hn. No reason,” Kakashi says, waves a hand, and pulls one of his brightly-colored books out of his pocket.

The announcement of the Chuunin Exams shakes up their training schedule quite a bit. In lieu of taking missions, they have a week solely of training. It’s a fantastic way to deal with nerves, because all of them are too exhausted to have stress-insomnia, but by the time they get to the first part of the exam they’re all still exhausted.

It is not exactly what Naruto or anyone else expected. A sit-down test asking difficult questions that Naruto probably wouldn’t have known some of the answers to had he not spent so much time with Sakura. Overall, the first stage was pretty forgettable. It was hard to take Ibiki seriously when Anko regularly called him her sausage, and then the guy that replaced him when he left mid-test looked like a loser.

Added to that was Anko’s too-early appearance, and Naruto is, like, ninety percent sure that he doesn’t actually want to become a Chuunin because all the Jounin and Chuunin are idiots. Not that he would say that to her face.

Once they get back to the house, Sasuke immediately and automatically starts food, leaving Sakura and Naruto in the main living room. Since Anko had mentioned the Forest of Death in her spiel, they figure they should probably be prepared. By the time Iruka returns, Kakashi following him, Naruto and Sakura are halfway through their collective weapons, checking them for sharpness and integrity.

“We passed, sensei!” Sakura says.

Naruto has to hold back a snort when Kakashi returns with, “Of course. If you hadn’t, I would have abandoned you.”

Dinner is fast, and after they’ve cleaned up, trained some more, and finished with their weapons, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all head for bed. The night seems all too short, and before he’s really aware of it Naruto is following Sakura in the dawn light in the direction of the Forest of Death. He feels woefully unprepared even though he’s really as prepared as he can be.

It’s actually a little comforting when Anko tries to scare them, because Anko is not a scary person once you get to know her, just weird. The most relieving thing is when the test itself starts, and all the talking is done.

They head straight into the forest for nearly a full kilometer before cutting off to the east. There’s no guarantee that they will run into anyone by doing that, but traveling in a zig-zag will give them the element of surprise, at least. And there is surprise, but it’s more on their end.

Well, surprise nicely mingled with a dash of sheer fucking terror, but you can’t have everything.

Naruto doesn’t even see where the person came from, just knows that they are there and the killing intent rolling off them is so potent it’s paralyzing. He freezes, feels Sakura freeze behind him, and Sasuke next to her.

There’s silence, horrible, stretching silence for a full minute, and the other shinobi steps forward. Sasuke moves first. From the blood that sprinkles the tree they’re rooted to Naruto can tell it is only because he jabbed a senbon in his thigh to force adrenaline into his bloodstream. He sends a flurry of shuriken at their enemy, nudges Sakura and then Naruto back into movement.

Combat is easier to bear when Naruto realizes that they are, as they have been since first meeting Kakashi, a team. Even if they are not the ambushers, they have a plan of sorts. Their first priority, Kakashi all but nailed to their foreheads, is to protect their medic, Sakura. That’s easy enough, she moves behind Naruto and draws a couple of kunai, just in case.

Their second priority: assess their enemy’s strength. The other shinobi had easily weaved through the fistful of shuriken Sasuke had sent flying, so it was time to try something different. Another flurry of shuriken, this time with some kunai mixed in, and Sasuke runs forward, a kunai in his own hand as he exchanges a few blows with the other shinobi.

“He’s too strong,” Sakura mutters, and Naruto glances back quickly to see her watching the other two with narrowed eyes. “Naruto—”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off when their enemy landed a blow directly with one foot onto Sasuke’s back, sending him flying into another tree with a painful crack.

Naruto is over to catch him in half a second, landing three trees away from Sakura with a belated apology to Kakashi for leaving Sakura. But that was third priority—never leave a comrade behind. He turns quickly but not quick enough; the other shinobi had launched themself before Naruto’s feet had even touched the tree.

Naruto is maybe panicking a little, trying to decide between running and fighting (running, running would guarantee he could get Sasuke at least to safety) when a pink and red blur interposes itself between them. “Fuck! Get away from them!” Sakura shrieks, punches the Grass shinobi right in the stomach before turning to Naruto and Sasuke. She’s shaking like a leaf, but when she walks over to them it’s with a confident stride. Naruto’s more focused on the person who’s unconscious (or maybe dead?) at the base of the tree across from them.

His eyes slowly slide over to Sakura, though, and she passes a lit-green hand over Sasuke’s forehead. “He’s just unconscious,” she croaks, slumps down into a seated position with her arms on top of her knees. Naruto can’t see her face. The crumpled body below them does not move.

After a few moments of breathing and relaxing as much as they can, Naruto stands, puts a hand on her arms, “Can you help me get him on my back?”

Sakura looks up, her eyes exhausted, and nods. Once Sasuke (still unconscious, but still alive) is on Naruto’s back, she takes point, leading them through the forest. They still need to find another team and take their Scroll of Earth before they head to the central tower, but they have four days, give or take. That is plenty of time.

Two more hours travelling are squeezed in before they touch down for the night. They take it slow, largely because with Sasuke out of commission they have to stick to the ground; neither Sakura nor Naruto are strong enough to carry him through the tree branches. But if Sakura’s to be believed, Sasuke will wake up soon. Which is sort of nebulous, but Naruto takes what he can get.

Sasuke  _ does _ wake soon, though, and Naruto feels so relieved his chest feels like it’s going to burst. Why the hell he feels like that, he does not know, nor does he have the time to wonder about it.

They set up a makeshift camp under the roots of a tree for the night, take turns on watch (as Kakashi-sensei had taught them) after setting up subtle traps in a half-mile radius (as Anko had taught them). Sasuke is slow but by the time they start moving, just before dawn, he’s back to relative normal.

He stays close to Naruto, and that eases something—maybe fear. They move as a tight unit until they find another team. From the clothes they are not from Konohagakure, and Sakura is the one to slip away to scout, coming back to hiss, “Land of Sound. They have a Scroll of Earth, I could hear them talking about it.”

“Formation E?” Naruto asks. Their usual for taking down other teams, but Sakura’s eyes narrow and she whispers back, “F.”

A thin but vicious smile is shared between the three of them, and they head in single file toward the patch of earth the other team is on.

Sakura leads, speedy and light but simultaneously powerful, driving a fist into the ground as the Amegakure shinobi are caught off guard by their appearance. Sasuke picks off the one on her left, Naruto the one on her right (blunt force trauma to the head is always a crowd pleaser). With the three of them turning as one to the last ninja, he doesn’t stand a chance.

They find the scroll easily enough—in the girl’s pocket, not even trapped—and after Sasuke flits up to the treetops to make sure they are heading in the right direction, they continue to the tower.

It takes them a couple of hours to make it. Going slowly and carefully is better than speed, they agreed, and at the slow speed they successfully dodge a series of traps (poorly done traps) and still make it to the tower with plenty of time.

Plenty of time being several days, but Naruto’s sort of sick of nature.

There are team accommodations in the tower for those who made it, and the three of them spend their remaining time sparring and making sure they are completely prepared for whatever might be coming.

Few other teams are there when they arrive, but more trickle in until there’s a surprising amount of genin roaming the large building. It’s almost a relief to see Anko then, five days after they were locked into the forest complex and two days after having the Hokage himself emerge from their crossed scrolls. That had been a surprise, and not exactly a welcome one when they were all still hopped up on adrenaline.

But once they are in lines and ready to be talked at for another hour or however long, Anko bestows a small smile on each of them before announcing, with a devilish grin, that there were to be preliminaries.

Sasuke was first, against a shinobi from the Land of Sound in a match that was almost pathetically short. Two matches later, it’s Sakura’s turn. An older genin from Konoha, he’s almost a match for her with his weirdly malleable physique, but Sakura isn’t a medic in training for nothing. She’s ruthless and precise with her chakra scalpels, leaving her opponent a mess on the stone floor of the arena.

It’s another three fights until Naruto leaves the mezzanine, three fights of cheering for the friends and, for the most part, the Konoha shinobi dominating. Adrenaline was already buzzing in his body when he went down to face Kiba.

It was a hard fight, Naruto would be the first to admit. Both of them lack the finesse of their teammates, but both are about equally powered. That is, until Naruto remembers that Kurama exists (“Hey, kid,” says the amused, gravely voice inside him). After which the fight, like Sasuke’s, ends embarrassingly quickly.

Having it over with is a relief, and all that Naruto has to look forward to is the finals a month away. He watches the rest of the fights, is furious at Neji, heartbroken at Lee. Going home is something done with mixed feelings, following the preliminaries, but Naruto is glad to see his dad again, to actually be home.

With a month until the finals, Naruto doesn’t exactly know what to do with himself. His first thought is to pester Kakashi-sensei into training him, but that receives a loud “No.” His next thought is to find someone else to train him, but then Kakashi-sensei hands him a slip of paper with a place and time written on it.

“Someone who has agreed to train you will meet you there two days from now, at that time,” Kakashi-sensei says, and that’s it. He has two days to prepare himself for what could be anyone.

So he finds himself, as always, in the kitchen watching Sasuke cook their dinner. Oden, even if it’s literally July; Sasuke has interesting comfort foods.

What is more interesting is that Naruto knows them to be comfort foods.

“You know, why do you make me food all the time?” Naruto finally asks, watching Sasuke slide a knife into a radish, begin rapidly turning it to get the peel off. He starts when Naruto says that, his face slowly going tomato-red as he turns to blink at Naruto.

“Uh, why?”

“Kakashi-sensei asked me about it and he’s right, you don’t ever really make for for anyone else unless it’s for dinner or something. So,  _ why _ ?” Naruto leans forward a little, staring directly into Sasuke’s eyes.

“Um,” he looks flustered, and as Naruto continues staring the flustered state increases, and Naruto finds it simultaneously amusing and alarming. “Uh.” Five seconds away from hitting him on the head, Naruto is steamrolled when Sasuke says, in what sounds like one word instead of several, “I like you a lot but I didn’t know how to tell you?”

He blanks. Naruto fucking blanks for one of the few times in his life and gapes at him. “You like me?” Sasuke nervously nods. “And you couldn’t have just, I don’t know,  _ told me _ ?” Naruto asks, failing to stop himself from throwing his arms up in absolute despair.

Sasuke just looks uncomfortable, then looks down at his hands, the daikon he had peeled. The red progressed from his face to his ears and neck when he says, “I didn’t know how you would respond.”

Naruto stares at him, leans forward to flick his forehead with a finger. “You’re dumb,” he grouses. “I like you too, bastard.”

Flinching back, Sasuke looks up from the radish and the knife, accidentally stabs himself as he asks, “Really?”

Naruto shrugs at that. “I guess we’re both sorta dumb.”

The next evening, before Sasuke heads off with Kakashi to train for a week and before Naruto goes to meet the mystery shinobi coerced into training him, they all end up sitting on the porch stretching across the back of the house. The fireflies are more active than they have been in weeks, and while they are out there to watch the little bugs it’s mostly just so all of them can have a moment together before splitting for the better part of a month.

Naruto is sitting away from everyone else. It’s by choice; he’s been so overwhelmed by everything that just being with his family is fine, but he wants some silence.

Sasuke goes inside, comes back out with a tray of covered bowls. He distributes them, starting with Anko, ending with Naruto. And he sits next to Naruto, no bowl for himself, his arms wrapped around his legs.

“Did you mean it?” Sasuke asks after Naruto has inhaled approximately half of the oshiruko he was given.

“Mean what?” Naruto asks, inhaling the other half and setting the bowl down.

“That you like me?” Sasuke doesn’t look at him, but Naruto can see his red ears.

“ _ Yes _ , otherwise I wouldn’t have said it,” Naruto bonks him lightly on the shoulder. Sasuke looks up, drops his hands from his legs.

“Promise?” and Naruto understands being fucked up emotionally, but the repetition is getting annoying. He takes Sasuke’s left hand in both of his, squeezes it.

“Promise.”


End file.
